ClubFloyd Transcript:Bigger Than You Think by Andrew PlotkinAs played on ifMUD on February 3, 2013

The idea behind ClubFloyd
is that each week at a pre-arranged time, a group of
people meet online to cooperatively play a game of
interactive fiction.

Below is a transcript of
Bigger Than You Think, written by Andrew Plotkin.
Bigger Than You Think was released as part of the Yuletide 2012 exchange. Yuletide is an annual rare-fandoms gift exchange fanfic challenge where participants agree to write a 1,000-word (minimum) story for a randomly assigned recipient who has requested at least one of the things the writer offered to do, in return for receiving a story from a randomly assigned writer fulfilling one of the participant's requests.
You can learn more about the game, including how to download it, by visiting
the ifWiki.

WARNING!Below you will find a transcript of
people playing this game, and it goes without saying that
the transcript is full of spoilers. So, if you've never
played this game, and think you might like to at some
point, I do not recommend reading any further. Instead,
you might want to return to the interactive fiction
page.

ToyShop & Floyditorium

#ClubFloyd Discussion

Jacqueline says, "One more minute until I go look at the votes - if you're still voting, hurry every chance you get."

Jacqueline says, "(Please)"

Jacqueline says, "Okay, let's see. One sec..."

DavidW) Jacqueline says, "We have a fifteen-way tie for first place. Thanks, guys."

Jacqueline says, "Actually, there was a winner."

Jacqueline says, "And if there hadn't been, I'd have broken the tie."

maga says, "golly"

Jacqueline says, "But there *was* a winner. Bigger Than You Think, by our crazy Uncle Z."

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "load sleepmask btyt"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | startFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Bigger Than You Think is a choice-based interactive
Floyd | narrative. Every few paragraphs, you will have the opportunity to
Floyd | decide what happens next in the story. Type one of the boldface words
Floyd | to select an option.
Floyd |
Floyd | You may return to the beginning of the story by typing start.
Floyd | (This option is always available.) Note that this game has an autosave
Floyd | feature; if you quit and then start a new session, it should pick up
Floyd | where you left off.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Bigger Than You ThinkFloyd | An interactive riff by Andrew Plotkin
Floyd | Release 4 / Serial number 130101 / Inform 7 build 6G60 (I6/v6.32 lib
Floyd | 6/12N)
Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says, "Good choice, but I've already played it. Also, do try to play BTYT offline, to get the best effect from it."

DavidW says, "oh, unrelated, but I reread your review on Myst IV the other day. Much fun.,"

maga arrives, full of fun and funk.

Jacqueline says (to DW), "Heh. Yay. Glad it is still getting some readers."

maga says, "(actually being in the toyshop would help)"

Jacqueline says (to maga), "Oops you mischanneled and I'm ... oh."

DavidW says, "oh, I should also warn you guys: don't save or restore."

Jacqueline says, "Yeah. You can @recap #toyshop, maga."

Jacqueline says (to DW), "On that note, I wonder how this autosave thing is going to work with Floyd, if at all."

DavidW asks, "Autosave? What autosave?"

maga says, "sure, upwards"

maga says (to Floyd), "upwards"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | startFloyd | >Floyd | > UPWARDSFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says (to DW), "It mentioned it in the pre-game text."

DavidW says, "A note about the status line: valid command are on the left, and inventory items (when you get them) are on the right."

maga says, "one vote for passage"

Jacqueline | Note that this game has an autosave feature; if you quit and then start a new session, it should pick up where you left off.

Jacqueline says, "f passage"

Jacqueline says, "Whoops"

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | startFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend:
Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before.
Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Jacqueline), "ah, I see that now."

maga says, "side"

Jacqueline asks, "Well, we have no rope, but I suspect maybe we get to come back here?"

Jacqueline says, "Side, sure."

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "side"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] inscriptionwaterFloyd | startFloyd | >Floyd | > SIDEFloyd |
Floyd | You follow a descending passage, with the sound of water echoing
Floyd | somewhere ahead. You see nothing, but surely--
Floyd |
Floyd | Ah, here: you round a final turn, and see a dark pool ahead. It lies
Floyd | at the foot of a carved stone wall. Water trickles down the wall's
Floyd | face, feeding the pool from some unknown source above.
Floyd |
Floyd | The descending stream chuckles happily to itself; but the pool is
Floyd | oddly still, and opaque. But no -- your headlamp picks out a faint
Floyd | gleam, somewhere below the surface. Gold? Or the eye of some
Floyd | cave-fish, if they have eyes?
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the inscriptions, or reach into the
Floyd | water?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Water."

maga says, "inscriptions first, in case they say WARNING: ACID BATH"

DavidW says, "heh"

Jacqueline says, "oh okay, good point."

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "inscriptions"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] inscriptionwaterFloyd | startFloyd | >Floyd | > INSCRIPTIONSFloyd |
Floyd | The inscriptions tell, in awkward but decipherable Latin, of a
Floyd | war-party of titans who were flung from the heavens during the gods'
Floyd | war against Cronos. These titans sailed around the edge of the world
Floyd | seven times seeking the gates of Cronos's kingdom, but they could not
Floyd | be found, for all of that ur-kingdom had been sunk into the
Floyd | underworld. The titans dug... but beyond this, the text is unreadable,
Floyd | obliterated by the flowing water.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | startFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says, "Don't worry"

Jacqueline asks, "D this time, or keep exploring the U branch?"

maga says, "I suspect that that was not a simple restart"

maga says, "but let's go back to the same branch, sure"

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | startFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | startFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend:
Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before.
Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "ahead"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] forestumbrellaFloyd | startFloyd | >Floyd | > AHEADFloyd |
Floyd | The light brightens as you approach... though only in contrast to the
Floyd | stone-darkness do you call it bright.
Floyd |
Floyd | Eventually you make out veins of crystal overhead, which shed the
Floyd | slow-flaring orange glow. No such phosphorescent mineral is natural to
Floyd | the Earth's geology, you are sure; is this at last the sign you have
Floyd | sought?
Floyd |
Floyd | The crystal veins join and knot as the ceiling rises, until you walk
Floyd | in a wide cavern as well-lit as your own study. But your study
Floyd | contains nothing like the shadows that rise ahead: stalagmites cloaked
Floyd | in shifting darkness... no, trees, growing underground in the
Floyd | orange light. Surely only the arts of the Lost Peoples could nurture
Floyd | such a thing, here beneath the earth.
Floyd |
Floyd | An umbrella lies discarded, though neatly folded, at the subterranean
Floyd | forest's eaves.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you take the umbrella or advance into the forest?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga exclaims, "no! umbrella mimic!"

DavidW says, "oh, go on, take the scary umbrella"

Jacqueline says, "heehee"

maga says, "the first time you open it it'll go SCROM down onto your head"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] movestandFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd | >Floyd | > FORESTFloyd |
Floyd | You move between the trees, and the orange light -- thin-spread as it
Floyd | was -- is quickly blotted out by overhanging branches. Only faint
Floyd | yellow gleams penetrate the foliage.
Floyd |
Floyd | It takes some time, in this rediscovered gloom, to realize that the
Floyd | glints among the foliage are paired. Eyes, in amber reflectance. You
Floyd | glance around nervously, and the eyes blink, in unison, all around
Floyd | you.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you move past the watchers, or stand?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd | >Floyd | > MOVEFloyd |
Floyd | You turn to run, but which way? The eyes surround you. You spin,
Floyd | trying to keep your back to a tree-trunk, but it is no use: you are
Floyd | seen.
Floyd |
Floyd | Better to cast a veil over that scene. Shall we start the story
Floyd | over?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga exclaims, "engrued!"

Jacqueline says, "I take it that critters with amber eyes can run sustained bursts of 35mph."

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "You were right."

Jacqueline says, "Yay."

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline asks, "Passage?"

maga says, "sure"

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend:
Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before.
Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] inscriptionwaterFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd | >Floyd | > SIDEFloyd |
Floyd | You follow a descending passage, with the sound of water echoing
Floyd | somewhere ahead. You see nothing, but surely--
Floyd |
Floyd | Ah, here: you round a final turn, and see a dark pool ahead. It lies
Floyd | at the foot of a carved stone wall. Water trickles down the wall's
Floyd | face, feeding the pool from some unknown source above.
Floyd |
Floyd | The descending stream chuckles happily to itself; but the pool is
Floyd | oddly still, and opaque. But no -- your headlamp picks out a faint
Floyd | gleam, somewhere below the surface. Gold? Or the eye of some
Floyd | cave-fish, if they have eyes?
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the inscriptions, or reach into the
Floyd | water?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "let's keep climbing this time"

maga says (to Floyd), "up"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd | >Floyd | > UPFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "OK"

maga says (to Floyd), "climbing"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] UabarAtalantÃ«Floyd | umbrellastartFloyd | >Floyd | > CLIMBINGFloyd |
Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too
Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your
Floyd | shoulders.
Floyd |
Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a
Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul
Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the
Floyd | knobbly floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk.
Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange
Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a
Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk
Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in
Floyd | the world on the same quest?
Floyd |
Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of
Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail
Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind
Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all
Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our
Floyd | knowledge."
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or
Floyd | AtalantÃ« in the reaches of the sea?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says, "That's a e with umlaut at the end of Atalant??."

maga says (to Floyd), "atalante"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] approachdownFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd | >Floyd | > ATALANTEFloyd |
Floyd | When your ship approaches AtalantÃ«, (the monk begins), the
Floyd | sea appears empty -- perhaps bluer, brighter, than the remote Atlantic
Floyd | depths might warrant. You will not see AtalantÃ«'s black-sand shores
Floyd | unless you know the way, the tide, and the path of sunlight that leads
Floyd | inward to them. The Masters of the Island have a duty of privacy to
Floyd | their people, and they hold it rigorously.
Floyd |
Floyd | But you do know the way, and so you return home.
Floyd |
Floyd | Now you stand in the Queen's Square, lingering after the morning's
Floyd | ritual attendance. The place will soon fill with a more cheerful crowd
Floyd | -- people drifting in to sit, meet friends, eat lunch, or all three --
Floyd | but you relish the moments of quiet.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you approach the sealed doors of the Temple? Or go
Floyd | down to the bustling markets?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "ha, excellent"

DavidW says, "yay. I was worried that might not"

maga asks, "down?"

Jacqueline says, "One sec."

Jacqueline says, "Still reading."

Jacqueline says, "Okay, d."

DavidW says, "I think short forms of directions work if they're the same as standard directions."

Jacqueline says, "Yeah, so far they have."

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "d"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] flaresmokeFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You descend the curving streets to the great market of AtalantÃ«. The
Floyd | smells of street-wagon coffee and hot frying fish strike you like...
Floyd | like... there is nothing that they are like; this is home.
Floyd |
Floyd | You look over a table of fireworks -- toys, though they would terrify
Floyd | the primitive Continentals you have just spent months among.
Floyd | Terrifying them, though, is not the goal. It is power that AtalantÃ«
Floyd | requires, power for the great engines and the greater ones which must
Floyd | be built. Whether that power can come from rare ores, or rock-pitch,
Floyd | or other sources yet unknown -- that is what you have spent your life
Floyd | trying to discover.
Floyd |
Floyd | Perhaps the answer does not lie in the remote Continents. The
Floyd | fire-dowsers have begun speaking of power from the Earth; the notion
Floyd | of rekindling the volcanic fires that once built AtalantÃ« from the sea
Floyd | floor. Dangerous, surely, but if it can be done... you have become
Floyd | weary of travel.
Floyd |
Floyd | But these are idle thoughts. Will you look at the flare or the
Floyd | smoke tube in the fireworks tray? Or, if the markets are of no
Floyd | more interest, you may start the story from the beginning.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > SMOKEFloyd |
Floyd | "Crack that and it will create enough smoke to fill half of the
Floyd | Queen's Square. Not that you should do it in the Square, of
Floyd | course!" You return his wink, and purchase the tube.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline asks, "Guess START?"

maga says, "yup"

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a flare, and a smoke tube.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga asks, "then whatever the monk's other story is? or do we want to check out the Temple?"

Jacqueline says, "Either. And maybe the flare will work with the opaque water."

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "this is pretty nice but it seems as though at least the first phase is just going to be cranking though all the available branches"

Jacqueline says, "It does feel that way, but I suspect it may not be."

Jacqueline says, "And that the game may be, um, bigger than we think."

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend:
Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before.
Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "side"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] inscriptionwaterFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > SIDEFloyd |
Floyd | You follow a descending passage, with the sound of water echoing
Floyd | somewhere ahead. You see nothing, but surely--
Floyd |
Floyd | Ah, here: you round a final turn, and see a dark pool ahead. It lies
Floyd | at the foot of a carved stone wall. Water trickles down the wall's
Floyd | face, feeding the pool from some unknown source above.
Floyd |
Floyd | The descending stream chuckles happily to itself; but the pool is
Floyd | oddly still, and opaque. But no -- your headlamp picks out a faint
Floyd | gleam, somewhere below the surface. Gold? Or the eye of some
Floyd | cave-fish, if they have eyes?
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the inscriptions, or reach into the
Floyd | water?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says, "Weirdly, personally, I thought the game was exactly as big as I thought it would be."

Jacqueline says, "hee"

maga says, "yeah, I expect it to open up once we find puzzles that work"

Jacqueline says, "So, I guess we didn't toss the flare in the water. Now when we restart, I wonder if we'll have a new flare (I suspect not)."

maga says, "hmm, maybe the flare scares off the grues"

yournamehere arrives, full of neither funk nor fun.

Jacqueline says, "Ooh - yeah."

Jacqueline says, "Well, let's see if we even still have it."

Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a flare, and a smoke tube.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "(we have no evidence that they are grues)"

Jacqueline says, "It just mentioned that it works in water, is all."

maga says, "(but what do you expect, really)"

Jacqueline says, "Huh. Still have a flare."

Jacqueline says (to maga), "Go try your grue theory."

maga says (to Floyd), "up"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > UPFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend:
Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before.
Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "ahead"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] forestumbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > AHEADFloyd |
Floyd | The light brightens as you approach... though only in contrast to the
Floyd | stone-darkness do you call it bright.
Floyd |
Floyd | Eventually you make out veins of crystal overhead, which shed the
Floyd | slow-flaring orange glow. No such phosphorescent mineral is natural to
Floyd | the Earth's geology, you are sure; is this at last the sign you have
Floyd | sought?
Floyd |
Floyd | The crystal veins join and knot as the ceiling rises, until you walk
Floyd | in a wide cavern as well-lit as your own study. But your study
Floyd | contains nothing like the shadows that rise ahead: stalagmites cloaked
Floyd | in shifting darkness... no, trees, growing underground in the
Floyd | orange light. Surely only the arts of the Lost Peoples could nurture
Floyd | such a thing, here beneath the earth.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you advance into the forest?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "forest"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] movestandFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > FORESTFloyd |
Floyd | You move between the trees, and the orange light -- thin-spread as it
Floyd | was -- is quickly blotted out by overhanging branches. Only faint
Floyd | yellow gleams penetrate the foliage.
Floyd |
Floyd | It takes some time, in this rediscovered gloom, to realize that the
Floyd | glints among the foliage are paired. Eyes, in amber reflectance. You
Floyd | glance around nervously, and the eyes blink, in unison, all around
Floyd | you.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you move past the watchers, or stand?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a flare, and a smoke tube.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline asks, "How now, brown cow?"

maga says, "okay, time for the Second Monk's Tale"

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Okay"

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] UabarAtalantÃ«Floyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too
Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your
Floyd | shoulders.
Floyd |
Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a
Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul
Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the
Floyd | knobbly floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk.
Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange
Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a
Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk
Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in
Floyd | the world on the same quest?
Floyd |
Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of
Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail
Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind
Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all
Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our
Floyd | knowledge."
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or
Floyd | AtalantÃ« in the reaches of the sea?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] approachdownFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > ATALANTEFloyd |
Floyd | When your ship approaches AtalantÃ«, (the monk begins), the
Floyd | sea appears empty -- perhaps bluer, brighter, than the remote Atlantic
Floyd | depths might warrant. You will not see AtalantÃ«'s black-sand shores
Floyd | unless you know the way, the tide, and the path of sunlight that leads
Floyd | inward to them. The Masters of the Island have a duty of privacy to
Floyd | their people, and they hold it rigorously.
Floyd |
Floyd | But you do know the way, and so you return home.
Floyd |
Floyd | Now you stand in the Queen's Square, lingering after the morning's
Floyd | ritual attendance. The place will soon fill with a more cheerful crowd
Floyd | -- people drifting in to sit, meet friends, eat lunch, or all three --
Floyd | but you relish the moments of quiet.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you approach the sealed doors of the Temple? Or go
Floyd | down to the bustling markets?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "temple"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] approachdownFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > TEMPLEFloyd |
Floyd | You hesitantly approach the great doors. You know only what every
Floyd | citizen knows: those who seek higher training may knock and be
Floyd | admitted -- or not. You have never considered the priesthood, but
Floyd | years of travel to the Continents have knotted suddenly into a desire
Floyd | for change.
Floyd |
Floyd | You raise your hand... and a panel opens, silently, before you can
Floyd | knock. The face that peers out is bland and mild, awaiting some sign.
Floyd | But you do not know what is expected of you. Perhaps this is just a
Floyd | passing whim, after all.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "approach"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] approachdownFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > APPROACHFloyd |
Floyd | You hesitantly approach the great doors. You know only what every
Floyd | citizen knows: those who seek higher training may knock and be
Floyd | admitted -- or not. You have never considered the priesthood, but
Floyd | years of travel to the Continents have knotted suddenly into a desire
Floyd | for change.
Floyd |
Floyd | You raise your hand... and a panel opens, silently, before you can
Floyd | knock. The face that peers out is bland and mild, awaiting some sign.
Floyd | But you do not know what is expected of you. Perhaps this is just a
Floyd | passing whim, after all.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] approachdownFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > APPROACHFloyd |
Floyd | You hesitantly approach the great doors. You know only what every
Floyd | citizen knows: those who seek higher training may knock and be
Floyd | admitted -- or not. You have never considered the priesthood, but
Floyd | years of travel to the Continents have knotted suddenly into a desire
Floyd | for change.
Floyd |
Floyd | You raise your hand... and a panel opens, silently, before you can
Floyd | knock. The face that peers out is bland and mild, awaiting some sign.
Floyd | But you do not know what is expected of you. Perhaps this is just a
Floyd | passing whim, after all.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Oh, okay, it's pushing us back to the square afterward."

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a flare, and a smoke tube.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "So merely holding the object or having some knowledge we don't yet possess should be enough."

DavidW says, "You don't know what to do at the temple yet."

maga says (to Floyd), "up"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > UPFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "up"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] UabarAtalantÃ«Floyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > UPFloyd |
Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too
Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your
Floyd | shoulders.
Floyd |
Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a
Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul
Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the
Floyd | knobbly floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk.
Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange
Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a
Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk
Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in
Floyd | the world on the same quest?
Floyd |
Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of
Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail
Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind
Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all
Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our
Floyd | knowledge."
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or
Floyd | AtalantÃ« in the reaches of the sea?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] towerssquareFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] keysmokeFloyd | flareFloyd | >Floyd | > UABARFloyd |
Floyd | You were born in Uabar, (the monk begins), great Uabar, city
Floyd | of the towers, queen of the desert. You grew in its alleys, chasing
Floyd | imaginary revolutionaries, rolling under palanquins to escape the
Floyd | dreamed pursuit of djinn-lords, dodging between coaches and
Floyd | lizard-beeves to delight phantom admirers. Soon you will be grown, and
Floyd | stately walk the avenues with a modest headcloth and the mist of
Floyd | fountain-spray brushing your face. But that day is not today.
Floyd |
Floyd | The men and women of Uabar crowd past you today, ignoring the slight
Floyd | form of a still-child leaning on the old stone well. (The first well
Floyd | of Uabar, which stood in the deep desert long before the People came
Floyd | here and built fountains and avenues and towers.) You hear a commotion
Floyd | in the alleys, as your playmates gather for yet another game. But your
Floyd | eyes are drawn to a nearby square: the day's debates are beginning.
Floyd |
Floyd | A stone key lies forgotten on the lip of the well.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you pick up the key, run and climb towers with your
Floyd | friends, or slip into the square and hear what the citizens are
Floyd | discussing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] keyFloyd | >Floyd | > SQUAREFloyd |
Floyd | You climb the low wall and sit looking into the square. The citizens
Floyd | of Uabar talk, as they often talk, of metal: of steel and silver and
Floyd | nickel, of quicksilver and saltlith and skylith and the rarer
Floyd | alchemical metals. All the substances which are so dear in the desert,
Floyd | which have forced Uabar to grow in spires of stone, with only traces
Floyd | of precious metal within.
Floyd |
Floyd | A hortator stands and begins extolling the virtues of Starfall. You
Floyd | have heard the word before, but now you begin to understand its
Floyd | import: a vision of falling fire, raw ore from the sky, a bounty of
Floyd | metal for Uabar to mine from the sands. It is within reach, if enough
Floyd | citizens turn their hands to the project...
Floyd |
Floyd | You are entranced, and shout for the hortator, even though your voice
Floyd | is not yet legally heard. In a few months it will be; and you will
Floyd | take study with the scholars of the paths of the heavens, working to
Floyd | solve the remaining intricacies of Starfall. It will not be easy, but
Floyd | it will begin in your lifetime.
Floyd |
Floyd | That is another story, however. Will you start yours over from
Floyd | the beginning?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Guess we'll find gear that will work here and possibly also in that big pit."

maga says, "mmhmm"

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] keyFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a flare, a smoke tube, and a stone key.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] crowbarsmokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] keyFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from
Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have
Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed.
Floyd |
Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening
Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the
Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety.
Floyd |
Floyd | A steel crowbar is caught crossways in the shaft here -- no doubt
Floyd | dropped by an earlier explorer, somewhere above.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, take the crowbar, or
Floyd | continue climbing down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] keyFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | Another stretched-step downward, groping for ledges with your toes.
Floyd | Then another, then another -- until slick stone shrugs your foot away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Now you are plunging through the darkness, which roars at you and
Floyd | blurs past your flailing hands.
Floyd |
Floyd | Somewhere below is the end of your journey. Such a thing should not be
Floyd | spoken of, lest one decide that life has yielded up its last marvel.
Floyd | Shall we instead start the story from the beginning?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Whoops - you drive. Sorry."

DavidW says, "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"

maga says, "oops"

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] keyFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a flare, a smoke tube, and a stone key.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "d"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] canyonclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crowbarsmokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] keyFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from
Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have
Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed.
Floyd |
Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening
Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the
Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety.
Floyd |
Floyd | A steel crowbar is caught crossways in the shaft here -- no doubt
Floyd | dropped by an earlier explorer, somewhere above.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, take the crowbar, or
Floyd | continue climbing down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Yeah, you drive, get that crowbar on the way down, please."

Jacqueline says, "Thanks."

maga asks, "so, canyon?"

Jacqueline says, "Sure."

maga says (to Floyd), "canyon"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] leftrightFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] opencarvingssmokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] crowbarFloyd | keyFloyd | >Floyd | > CANYONFloyd |
Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind.
Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow,
Floyd | steady descent.
Floyd |
Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly
Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall. Lines of petroglyphs
Floyd | spiral around its face. To either side of the door, smaller cracks
Floyd | lead away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, try to open the locked
Floyd | door, or continue to the left or right?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga asks, "left and right, zarf? really now?"

Jacqueline says, "In this game, with no turning around, it works."

DavidW says, "Caves of Time has jaded you."

Jacqueline says, "haha"

maga says (to Floyd), "carvings"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] leftrightFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] opencarvingssmokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] crowbarFloyd | keyFloyd | >Floyd | > CARVINGSFloyd |
Floyd | The carvings are pictorial. They show a circle of hands approaching a
Floyd | larger circle, cut with intricate boundaries -- and if you had any
Floyd | doubt of your mark, they are now dispelled, for those outlines are
Floyd | continental. It is Earth which the circle-of-hands
Floyd | approaches. The map is not precise... or, no, it is: you make
Floyd | out the thickened land masses of the last Ice Age, twenty thousand
Floyd | years past.
Floyd |
Floyd | Whatever the story, these inscriptions do not reveal the end of it.
Floyd | The smaller circle shatters, and hand-outlines drift down like
Floyd | snowflakes across the world.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga asks, "door?"

Jacqueline says, "Um, pretty. And probably a clue we won't understand for awhile."

Jacqueline says, "Or possibly it's just world building."

Jacqueline asks, "Left?"

maga says, "I was going to try the door first"

DavidW says, "Bet it's locked."

Jacqueline says, "Go for it."

maga says (to Floyd), "open"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] leftrightFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] opencarvingssmokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] crowbarFloyd | keyFloyd | >Floyd | > OPENFloyd |
Floyd | You push and tug, but the door does not move at all. Upon closer
Floyd | inspection, you see a keyhole by the door's edge; apparently this will
Floyd | not be a matter of main force.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "there we go"

maga says (to Floyd), "key"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] shoesumbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] crowbarFloyd | >Floyd | > KEYFloyd |
Floyd | You take out the stone key that you brought down into these tunnels.
Floyd | You slip it into the door's keyhole... and it turns. Click. Unlocked.
Floyd |
Floyd | A startling stroke of luck, this. Or -- if your theories about the
Floyd | behavior of merging histories are anywhere near right -- perhaps not
Floyd | luck at all.
Floyd |
Floyd | The door opens easily, or as easily as a ton of marble on limestone
Floyd | hinges could move. The chamber beyond is mostly empty, but with clear
Floyd | signs of human habitation. It appears to have been some sort of living
Floyd | space; a sleeping nook, a few carved niches for storage. One blackened
Floyd | recess is certainly a fireplace, with -- yes -- a connection to a
Floyd | natural chimney in the rear.
Floyd |
Floyd | The only items that remain are two folded bits of leather,
Floyd | surprisingly supple and neatly made. (Or, again... not so surprising.)
Floyd | Upon closer inspection, they appear to be shoes, quite small --
Floyd | perhaps a child's?
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you take the shoes? Or will you leave this trove for
Floyd | paleological analysis, and start the story anew?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | crowbarFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a flare, a smoke tube, a handy crowbar, and a
Floyd | pair of small shoes.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga asks, "back to where we were, try left and right?"

DavidW says, "I hadn't even thought ot trying those there."

maga says, "well, I've shoved an umbrella up a flue in an IF game recently"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] canyonclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | crowbarFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from
Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have
Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed.
Floyd |
Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening
Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the
Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "canyon"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] leftrightFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] opencarvingssmokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | crowbarFloyd | >Floyd | > CANYONFloyd |
Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind.
Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow,
Floyd | steady descent.
Floyd |
Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly
Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar.
Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the
Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door,
Floyd | or continue to the left or right?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "left"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] climbropeFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | crowbarFloyd | >Floyd | > LEFTFloyd |
Floyd | The narrow passage rises slightly as it runs. You turn sideways to
Floyd | slip between the limestone formations, and continue your progress.
Floyd |
Floyd | When green light begins seeping into the canyon, somewhere ahead, you
Floyd | are disoriented: surely you have not ascended so far as the surface?
Floyd | But you press forward, and the illumination soon dispels your
Floyd | confusion, as you step free into wide, round space -- the bottom of a
Floyd | deep sinkhole. Far above, foliage burns viridian in the distant circle
Floyd | of daylight.
Floyd |
Floyd | A rope sprawls in ungainly coils across the floor of the sinkhole. No
Floyd | doubt some explorer once descended this way, but the return route has
Floyd | become dislodged.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you attempt to climb, gather up the rope, or
Floyd | start the story over?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | crowbarFloyd ] ropeFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a flare, a smoke tube, a handy crowbar, a pair of
Floyd | small shoes, and a coil of rope.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Go for it, driver."

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | crowbarFloyd ] ropeFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | crowbarFloyd ] ropeFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend:
Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before.
Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "rope"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] openhistoryFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | crowbarFloyd |
Floyd | > ROPEFloyd |
Floyd | You run the rope through the eye-bolt, and fasten it with a hitch that
Floyd | you don't remember the name of. You wrap the rope around yourself and
Floyd | ease yourself steadily down the pit.
Floyd |
Floyd | You have only descended a few lengths, however, when your feet hit --
Floyd | not stone, but chilly metal. The pit narrows here, and someone has
Floyd | installed a heavy steel hatch, blocking the descent.
Floyd |
Floyd | You brace yourself on a ledge, and run your fingers over the rusty
Floyd | metal. Is this modern workmanship, showing a few years of rust... or
Floyd | an unknown alloy of lost history, just starting to decay after
Floyd | centuries?
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you attempt to open the hatch, consider its relation to
Floyd | history, or abandon your descent and start the story
Floyd | over?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "History"

maga says (to Floyd), "history"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] openhistoryFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | crowbarFloyd | >Floyd | > HISTORYFloyd |
Floyd | One might imagine (you began your thesis) that the impact of
Floyd | a foreign history onto ours would be comparable to the Colonial era of
Floyd | our history. The shock of contact; then tribes of strangers,
Floyd | perhaps with puissant arts or techne, spreading out into lands that we
Floyd | previously imagined to be our birthright; then displacement, or
Floyd | assimilation, or slaughter.
Floyd |
Floyd | It may be so. But this is only the simplest surface of intersection.
Floyd | The full impact of two streams of history would be impossible for any
Floyd | historic observer to judge. The ramified interactions would occur up
Floyd | and down the "linear" scale of time. Legends and stories in the mythic
Floyd | past; artifacts embedded in the historic record; prophecies, visions,
Floyd | and dialectics of the expected future; new peoples in the present, or
Floyd | nations, or even lands or seas. All would be visible (or understood,
Floyd | or inferred, or presumed) by observers in every age of history. Only
Floyd | the intangible, inexpressible shock of difference would mark
Floyd | the moment of intersection in the now...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] descendhistoryFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > CROWBARFloyd |
Floyd | You unship your crowbar, wedge it under the hatch's rim, and start
Floyd | shoving. The hinges cough and wail, but soon the hatch has cracked
Floyd | open, and it is only a few more minutes before you have enough room to
Floyd | pass.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you descend, or stop and consider the hatch's relation to
Floyd | history?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "descend"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > DESCENDFloyd |
Floyd | You continue your descent for a long while. Fortunately, the chimney
Floyd | ends before your rope does, and you emerge into...
Floyd |
Floyd | Light -- reflecting your helmet-lamp from all directions. You blink
Floyd | for a moment, but it is not truly blinding, only startling. You peer
Floyd | around. Glittering light... and words! Or pictographs, or letters.
Floyd | Mathematical symbols, for all you know. The crystal walls are ringed
Floyd | with them, washed with them, dripping with incomprehensible runes.
Floyd |
Floyd | This is certainly what you have been seeking. But without further
Floyd | knowledge of the Lost Peoples and their writing systems, it will take
Floyd | years of study to absorb the meaning of this chamber.
Floyd |
Floyd | Lacking that time, we should start the story over from the
Floyd | beginning.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "meh"

maga says, "bah, it's just a lost chamber of ancient pictographs"

maga says, "hardly worth getting out of bed for"

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a flare, a smoke tube, and a pair of small
Floyd | shoes.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "haha"

DavidW says, "The porn is on the ... oh, never mind."

Jacqueline says, "Now what do we do? Hm."

maga says, "so, hmm, what now"

Jacqueline says (to maga), "I just asked you that."

DavidW says, "You haven't gone left of door or descended all the way down."

maga says, "yeah, I hadn't scrolled down yet"

maga says, "right of door, but yes"

maga says (to Floyd), "d"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] canyonclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] smokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from
Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have
Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed.
Floyd |
Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening
Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the
Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "canyon"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] leftrightFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] opencarvingssmokeFloyd | flareFloyd ] shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > CANYONFloyd |
Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind.
Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow,
Floyd | steady descent.
Floyd |
Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly
Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar.
Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the
Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door,
Floyd | or continue to the left or right?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] touchumbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] shoesFloyd | smokeFloyd | >Floyd | > RUNFloyd |
Floyd | The flare soon winks out behind you. Only the dim glow of your helmet
Floyd | precedes you down the passage. The shape -- whatever it was -- does
Floyd | not reappear behind you. Fled, stunned, or set on fire; you don't
Floyd | care, as long as it stays away.
Floyd |
Floyd | The tunnel runs long, and you fall back into your meditative stroll.
Floyd | And then you are startled out of it, as your lamplight is thrown back
Floyd | by a polished curve of metal.
Floyd |
Floyd | You move forward, picking the shape out of cavernous darkness. It is
Floyd | wide, lenticular -- ten feet high, perhaps fifty across -- in fact, it
Floyd | is the archetypical flying saucer. Only it could never have flown, not
Floyd | down here, in a natural space barely larger than the saucer's hull.
Floyd |
Floyd | (But is it the saucer that landed here, or the archetype...?)
Floyd |
Floyd | You can see the outline of a hatch, or portal, in the broad metal
Floyd | underbelly. It is a thin groove, however -- barely visible. The only
Floyd | possible means of access is a shape etched in the center of the
Floyd | portal: the outline of a human hand.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you touch the panel?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "OF COURSE WE WILL"

maga says (to Floyd), "touch"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] touchumbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] shoesFloyd | smokeFloyd | >Floyd | > TOUCHFloyd |
Floyd | You press your hand against the outline. The metal is cave-cool -- and
Floyd | then electric-hot, for just a moment. You snatch your hand back, but
Floyd | you are unharmed.
Floyd |
Floyd | From somewhere within the saucer, a voice echoes, in no language you
Floyd | have ever heard. There is a pause; the question is repeated.
Floyd |
Floyd | You say your name, for lack of any better idea, but it provokes no
Floyd | further response. Unless you have some other notion, we will have to
Floyd | start the story over.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "We have no other notion yet, I take it."

maga says, "BABY SHOES, SPACE DUDE"

Jacqueline says, "Given the game constraints."

DavidW says (to maga), "ha ha"

Jacqueline says, "yay"

Jacqueline says, "Well, try that if you want, but I think we have to start over."

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] shoesFloyd | smokeFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a smoke tube, and a pair of small shoes.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] shoesFloyd | smokeFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] pitshoesFloyd | smokeFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been
Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of
Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] forestumbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] shoesFloyd | smokeFloyd | >Floyd | > AHEADFloyd |
Floyd | The light brightens as you approach... though only in contrast to the
Floyd | stone-darkness do you call it bright.
Floyd |
Floyd | Eventually you make out veins of crystal overhead, which shed the
Floyd | slow-flaring orange glow. No such phosphorescent mineral is natural to
Floyd | the Earth's geology, you are sure; is this at last the sign you have
Floyd | sought?
Floyd |
Floyd | The crystal veins join and knot as the ceiling rises, until you walk
Floyd | in a wide cavern as well-lit as your own study. But your study
Floyd | contains nothing like the shadows that rise ahead: stalagmites cloaked
Floyd | in shifting darkness... no, trees, growing underground in the
Floyd | orange light. Surely only the arts of the Lost Peoples could nurture
Floyd | such a thing, here beneath the earth.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you advance into the forest?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "forest"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] movestandFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] shoesFloyd | smokeFloyd | >Floyd | > FORESTFloyd |
Floyd | You move between the trees, and the orange light -- thin-spread as it
Floyd | was -- is quickly blotted out by overhanging branches. Only faint
Floyd | yellow gleams penetrate the foliage.
Floyd |
Floyd | It takes some time, in this rediscovered gloom, to realize that the
Floyd | glints among the foliage are paired. Eyes, in amber reflectance. You
Floyd | glance around nervously, and the eyes blink, in unison, all around
Floyd | you.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you move past the watchers, or stand?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] crystalumbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > RUNFloyd |
Floyd | The smoke brightens, and thins, and you realize you have broken out
Floyd | into an open glade. The orange light of the cavern roof slants down;
Floyd | the watchers appears to have gone.
Floyd |
Floyd | In the center of the glade, a black crystal prism lies on a small
Floyd | pedestal. Is this what the forest guardians were protecting?
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you take the black crystal?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "OF COURSE WE WILL"

Jacqueline says, "I THINK"

DavidW says, "you better take it"

Jacqueline says, "IF MAGA IS STILL PAYING ATTENTION"

maga says (to Floyd), "crystal"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] crystalFloyd | shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > CRYSTALFloyd |
Floyd | You pick up the crystal prism and turn it in your fingers. This, no
Floyd | doubt, is some artifact of the Lost; you have the rest of your life to
Floyd | discover its purpose.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is no more to be learned here. Let us start the story
Floyd | anew.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Zach says, "Unless you want to put a shoe on it."

DavidW says, "I suspect you won't need *quite* as long as the rest of your life to use the crystal."

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a pair of small shoes, and a unique black crystal.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Hm, I am missing the verb EXAMINE"

maga says, "so hmm"

DavidW says, "The only way to examine something is to say its name; which is also the only way to use a thing."

Jacqueline says, "Sort of, I guess."

maga says, "we need to figure out the temple, the chamber of inscriptions, the saucer"

DavidW says, "or tower"

Jacqueline asks, "Does the rope help us with that?"

DavidW says, "You've used the rope already,"

Jacqueline asks, "Things only have one use?"

DavidW says, "yup"

Jacqueline says, "Since when is that true in a zarf game? Hrm. Okay."

DavidW says, "But the usage is persistant."

DavidW says, "You'll notice that the crowbar vanished when you opened the hatch with it."

Jacqueline says, "oho"

maga asks, "maybe something we've got will work at the temple? the crystal?"

Jacqueline says, "Maybe the monk at the temple needs a new pair of baby shoes... wait, no, the crystal is probably more likely."

Jacqueline says, "Yeah, let's try that."

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] UabarAtalantÃ«Floyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too
Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your
Floyd | shoulders.
Floyd |
Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a
Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul
Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the
Floyd | knobbly floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk.
Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange
Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a
Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk
Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in
Floyd | the world on the same quest?
Floyd |
Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of
Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail
Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind
Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all
Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our
Floyd | knowledge."
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or
Floyd | AtalantÃ« in the reaches of the sea?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "atalante"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] approachdownFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > ATALANTEFloyd |
Floyd | When your ship approaches AtalantÃ«, (the monk begins), the
Floyd | sea appears empty -- perhaps bluer, brighter, than the remote Atlantic
Floyd | depths might warrant. You will not see AtalantÃ«'s black-sand shores
Floyd | unless you know the way, the tide, and the path of sunlight that leads
Floyd | inward to them. The Masters of the Island have a duty of privacy to
Floyd | their people, and they hold it rigorously.
Floyd |
Floyd | But you do know the way, and so you return home.
Floyd |
Floyd | Now you stand in the Queen's Square, lingering after the morning's
Floyd | ritual attendance. The place will soon fill with a more cheerful crowd
Floyd | -- people drifting in to sit, meet friends, eat lunch, or all three --
Floyd | but you relish the moments of quiet.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you approach the sealed doors of the Temple? Or go
Floyd | down to the bustling markets?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "approach"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] approachdownFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > APPROACHFloyd |
Floyd | You hesitantly approach the great doors. You know only what every
Floyd | citizen knows: those who seek higher training may knock and be
Floyd | admitted -- or not. You have never considered the priesthood, but
Floyd | years of travel to the Continents have knotted suddenly into a desire
Floyd | for change.
Floyd |
Floyd | You raise your hand... and a panel opens, silently, before you can
Floyd | knock. The face that peers out is bland and mild, awaiting some sign.
Floyd | But you do not know what is expected of you. Perhaps this is just a
Floyd | passing whim, after all.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "hrm"

maga says, "oh, also the child in the desert city might be able to use the shoes to climb towers"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella,
Floyd | a pair of small shoes, and a unique black crystal.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

zarf asks, "drat, did I miss my game?"

Jacqueline says, "I think it moves us away from the temple immediately."

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

zarf arrives, full of fun, but no funk.

Jacqueline says (to zarf), "You did, but that is not your fault. We just decided to play it this morning."

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] UabarAtalantÃ«Floyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too
Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your
Floyd | shoulders.
Floyd |
Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a
Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul
Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the
Floyd | knobbly floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk.
Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange
Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a
Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk
Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in
Floyd | the world on the same quest?
Floyd |
Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of
Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail
Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind
Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all
Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our
Floyd | knowledge."
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or
Floyd | AtalantÃ« in the reaches of the sea?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says, "howdy, zarf"

zarf says, "and I apparently decided it sleep until 2 pm this morning"

zarf says, "hi everybody"

maga says (to Floyd), "uabar"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] towerssquareFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | shoesFloyd | >Floyd | > UABARFloyd |
Floyd | You were born in Uabar, (the monk begins), great Uabar, city
Floyd | of the towers, queen of the desert. You grew in its alleys, chasing
Floyd | imaginary revolutionaries, rolling under palanquins to escape the
Floyd | dreamed pursuit of djinn-lords, dodging between coaches and
Floyd | lizard-beeves to delight phantom admirers. Soon you will be grown, and
Floyd | stately walk the avenues with a modest headcloth and the mist of
Floyd | fountain-spray brushing your face. But that day is not today.
Floyd |
Floyd | The men and women of Uabar crowd past you today, ignoring the slight
Floyd | form of a still-child leaning on the old stone well. (The first well
Floyd | of Uabar, which stood in the deep desert long before the People came
Floyd | here and built fountains and avenues and towers.) You hear a commotion
Floyd | in the alleys, as your playmates gather for yet another game. But your
Floyd | eyes are drawn to a nearby square: the day's debates are beginning.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you run and climb towers with your friends, or slip into
Floyd | the square and hear what the citizens are discussing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "I'll post the transcript today."

maga says, "ey oop"

maga says (to Floyd), "shoes"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] RunesumbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > SHOESFloyd |
Floyd | Wait -- here are your climbing slippers! You had them in your purse
Floyd | all the time; how silly. You strap them on and leap to the tower wall,
Floyd | digging your toes into the seams of the stone.
Floyd |
Floyd | The day passes in a clamor of laughter and dizzy ascent. You swarm
Floyd | rooftops with your friends, claw your way over balustrades, sit in
Floyd | company and watch the sun sink over the towers of Uabar.
Floyd |
Floyd | What sticks in your mind, however, is a window-glimpse of a chalkboard
Floyd | of runes. You cannot climb towers forever, and surely there are
Floyd | secrets deeper than the best rooftop spots to hide-and-scurry.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you return to speak to the Keepers of the Runes? Or shall
Floyd | we start this story from the beginning?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] UabarFloyd | crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > RUNESFloyd |
Floyd | On your birthday, you will return and knock at the tower door. The
Floyd | Keepers will hear your plea to take study in the ancient language of
Floyd | the People. If you are steadfast and intent on your course, you will
Floyd | finish your days among their number -- reading the runes, while
Floyd | keeping an eye out for curious faces at the window.
Floyd |
Floyd | Shall we start this story from the beginning?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

zarf says, "ok"

maga says, "aha, and that will open up the chamber of wotsits"

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] UabarFloyd | crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrellaFloyd | and a unique black crystal. You have memorized the runes of
Floyd | Uabar.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Yep"

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] UabarFloyd | crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] pitUabarFloyd | crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been
Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of
Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline asks, "We have yet to use the umbrella, right?"

maga says (to Floyd), "pit"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] descendhistoryFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] UabarFloyd | crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > PITFloyd |
Floyd | You wrap the rope around yourself and ease yourself steadily down the
Floyd | pit.
Floyd |
Floyd | You have only descended a few lengths, however, when your feet hit --
Floyd | not stone, but chilly metal. The pit narrows here, and someone has
Floyd | installed a heavy steel hatch, blocking the descent.
Floyd |
Floyd | You brace yourself on a ledge, and run your fingers over the rusty
Floyd | metal. Is this modern workmanship, showing a few years of rust... or
Floyd | an unknown alloy of lost history, just starting to decay after
Floyd | centuries?
Floyd |
Floyd | You unship your crowbar, wedge it under the hatch's rim, and start
Floyd | shoving. The hinges cough and wail, but soon the hatch has cracked
Floyd | open, and it is only a few more minutes before you have enough room to
Floyd | pass.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you descend, or stop and consider the hatch's relation to
Floyd | history?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says, "correct"

maga says (to Floyd), "descend"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] UabarFloyd | crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > DESCENDFloyd |
Floyd | You continue your descent for a long while. Fortunately, the chimney
Floyd | ends before your rope does, and you emerge into...
Floyd |
Floyd | Light -- reflecting your helmet-lamp from all directions. You blink
Floyd | for a moment, but it is not truly blinding, only startling. You peer
Floyd | around. Glittering light... and words! Or pictographs, or letters.
Floyd | Mathematical symbols, for all you know. The crystal walls are ringed
Floyd | with them, washed with them, dripping with incomprehensible runes.
Floyd |
Floyd | This is certainly what you have been seeking. But without further
Floyd | knowledge of the Lost Peoples and their writing systems, it will take
Floyd | years of study to absorb the meaning of this chamber.
Floyd |
Floyd | Lacking that time, we should start the story over from the
Floyd | beginning.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "ach"

Jacqueline says, "We have to study first, maga."

Jacqueline says, "At the temple."

maga says (to Floyd), "uabar"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > UABARFloyd |
Floyd | You recognize the rune-forms of the language of Uabar! But that is not
Floyd | the only writing system represented here. Half of the symbols are
Floyd | unknown to you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga asks, "do you think that opened the temple up?"

DavidW says, "no"

maga says (to DW), "ssh"

Jacqueline says, "We opened the temple up, yes."

Jacqueline says, "We did that when we climbed the towers."

Jacqueline says, "It seems that way, anyway."

DavidW says, "different monk tales"

DavidW says, "The towers were in Uabar. The temple is in Atalante."

Jacqueline | On your birthday, you will return and knock at the tower door.

Jacqueline says, "Oh."

Jacqueline says, "Hrm."

maga says, "so we probably still need to get into the temple, but don't know how yet"

DavidW says, "yes"

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrellaFloyd | and a unique black crystal.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga asks, "hmm. we still haven't dealt with the glittery thing in the opaque water, right?"

DavidW says, "correct"

maga says, "or the terrible fall. hm"

maga says (to Floyd), "d"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] canyonclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from
Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have
Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed.
Floyd |
Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening
Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the
Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | Another stretched-step downward, groping for ledges with your toes.
Floyd | Then another, then another -- until slick stone shrugs your foot away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Now you are plunging through the darkness, which roars at you and
Floyd | blurs past your flailing hands.
Floyd |
Floyd | Somewhere below is the end of your journey. Such a thing should not be
Floyd | spoken of, lest one decide that life has yielded up its last marvel.
Floyd | Shall we instead start the story from the beginning?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrellaFloyd | and a unique black crystal.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline asks, "Wait, wasn't that the time for the umbrella?"

maga says, "I tried."

Jacqueline asks, "Possibly? While falling?"

Jacqueline says, "Oh, I thought you tried one turn ahead of that."

Jacqueline says, "Sorry."

DavidW says, "You haven't tried while falling."

maga says, "okay, let's do that"

Jacqueline says, "But yeah, what DW said."

maga says (to Floyd), "d"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] canyonclimbingFloyd | umbrellastartFloyd ] crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from
Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have
Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed.
Floyd |
Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening
Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the
Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "d"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] umbrellaFloyd | startFloyd ] crystalFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | Another stretched-step downward, groping for ledges with your toes.
Floyd | Then another, then another -- until slick stone shrugs your foot away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Now you are plunging through the darkness, which roars at you and
Floyd | blurs past your flailing hands.
Floyd |
Floyd | Somewhere below is the end of your journey. Such a thing should not be
Floyd | spoken of, lest one decide that life has yielded up its last marvel.
Floyd | Shall we instead start the story from the beginning?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "umbrella"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] tabletscrystalFloyd | startFloyd |
Floyd | > UMBRELLAFloyd |
Floyd | The notion is absurd, but do you have a better idea while plummeting
Floyd | to your death? You yank out your umbrella and pop it open.
Floyd |
Floyd | Whump! The handle yanks you around hard. You crack your knee
Floyd | and shoulder against the rushing stone... but you hang on to the
Floyd | bumbershoot, and somehow the roaring in your ears is decreasing. You
Floyd | cannot tell, in the dimness, how much the umbrella slows you -- but
Floyd | when the bottom of the pit reaches up and smacks you, the impact is
Floyd | bruising, not fatal.
Floyd |
Floyd | You gather yourself up from a pile of stone slabs. No, stone tablets!
Floyd | Signs and diagrams are carved across their faces.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the tablets, or shall we start the
Floyd | story from the beginning?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "tablets"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] tabletscrystalFloyd | startFloyd ] signFloyd |
Floyd | > TABLETSFloyd |
Floyd | The tablets seem to show ritual poses. If you are understanding them
Floyd | correctly, they indicate different castes of a society -- priest,
Floyd | merchanter, explorer, speaker-to-crowds -- and each caste has its set
Floyd | of postures and hand signs, from low rank to high.
Floyd |
Floyd | You mull the diagrams, and commit a few to memory. They will certainly
Floyd | warrant further study... but immediate problem is to extricate
Floyd | yourself from this pit. That will be enough for now.
Floyd |
Floyd | Let us leave that climb for another telling, and start this
Floyd | story from the beginning.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "aha"

Jacqueline says, "Now the temple."

maga says, "so now we can presumably go to the temple and be all 'westside'"

Jacqueline says, "heh. Yes."

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] signFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black
Floyd | crystal. You have memorized a ritual sign.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "up"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] signFloyd | >Floyd | > UPFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "up"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] UabarAtalantÃ«Floyd | crystalstartFloyd ] signFloyd | >Floyd | > UPFloyd |
Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too
Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your
Floyd | shoulders.
Floyd |
Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a
Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul
Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the
Floyd | knobbly floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk.
Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange
Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a
Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk
Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in
Floyd | the world on the same quest?
Floyd |
Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of
Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail
Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind
Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all
Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our
Floyd | knowledge."
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or
Floyd | AtalantÃ« in the reaches of the sea?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "atalante"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] approachdownFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] signFloyd | >Floyd | > ATALANTEFloyd |
Floyd | When your ship approaches AtalantÃ«, (the monk begins), the
Floyd | sea appears empty -- perhaps bluer, brighter, than the remote Atlantic
Floyd | depths might warrant. You will not see AtalantÃ«'s black-sand shores
Floyd | unless you know the way, the tide, and the path of sunlight that leads
Floyd | inward to them. The Masters of the Island have a duty of privacy to
Floyd | their people, and they hold it rigorously.
Floyd |
Floyd | But you do know the way, and so you return home.
Floyd |
Floyd | Now you stand in the Queen's Square, lingering after the morning's
Floyd | ritual attendance. The place will soon fill with a more cheerful crowd
Floyd | -- people drifting in to sit, meet friends, eat lunch, or all three --
Floyd | but you relish the moments of quiet.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you approach the sealed doors of the Temple? Or go
Floyd | down to the bustling markets?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "temple"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] approachdownFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] signFloyd | >Floyd | > TEMPLEFloyd |
Floyd | You hesitantly approach the great doors. You know only what every
Floyd | citizen knows: those who seek higher training may knock and be
Floyd | admitted -- or not. You have never considered the priesthood, but
Floyd | years of travel to the Continents have knotted suddenly into a desire
Floyd | for change.
Floyd |
Floyd | You raise your hand... and a panel opens, silently, before you can
Floyd | knock. The face that peers out is bland and mild, awaiting some sign.
Floyd | But you do not know what is expected of you. Perhaps this is just a
Floyd | passing whim, after all.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "sign"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] followcrystalFloyd | startFloyd |
Floyd | > SIGNFloyd |
Floyd | You take the Postulant's Pose. The woman behind the door nods, without
Floyd | a word, and closes her panel. You stand there, gazing at the great
Floyd | Temple doors, unsure if they will open.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a touch on your elbow. The woman is standing beside you. She
Floyd | gestures for you to follow, around the side of the Temple. "The doors
Floyd | are very noisy, you know. We usually use the back gate."
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you follow her? Or shall we start this story from
Floyd | the beginning?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "follow"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] crystalFloyd | startFloyd ]
Floyd | AtalantÃ«Floyd |
Floyd | > FOLLOWFloyd |
Floyd | You will pass into the Temple, and begin learning the deeper histories
Floyd | of AtalantÃ« -- its origins, its languages, its secret knowledge and
Floyd | its runes. The study will fill the remainder of your life. It will be
Floyd | a satisfying life -- but you will never again leave AtalantÃ«'s shores.
Floyd |
Floyd | Shall we start this story from the beginning?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Yes"

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ]
Floyd | AtalantÃ«Floyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black
Floyd | crystal. You have memorized the runes of AtalantÃ«.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Then the runes."

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ]
Floyd | AtalantÃ«Floyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] pitFloyd | AtalantÃ«Floyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been
Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of
Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "pit"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] descendhistoryFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ]
Floyd | AtalantÃ«Floyd | >Floyd | > PITFloyd |
Floyd | You wrap the rope around yourself and ease yourself steadily down the
Floyd | pit.
Floyd |
Floyd | You have only descended a few lengths, however, when your feet hit --
Floyd | not stone, but chilly metal. The pit narrows here, and someone has
Floyd | installed a heavy steel hatch, blocking the descent.
Floyd |
Floyd | You brace yourself on a ledge, and run your fingers over the rusty
Floyd | metal. Is this modern workmanship, showing a few years of rust... or
Floyd | an unknown alloy of lost history, just starting to decay after
Floyd | centuries?
Floyd |
Floyd | You unship your crowbar, wedge it under the hatch's rim, and start
Floyd | shoving. The hinges cough and wail, but soon the hatch has cracked
Floyd | open, and it is only a few more minutes before you have enough room to
Floyd | pass.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you descend, or stop and consider the hatch's relation to
Floyd | history?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] crystalFloyd | startFloyd ]
Floyd | AtalantÃ«Floyd | >Floyd | > DESCENDFloyd |
Floyd | You continue your descent for a long while. Fortunately, the chimney
Floyd | ends before your rope does, and you emerge into...
Floyd |
Floyd | Light -- reflecting your helmet-lamp from all directions. You blink
Floyd | for a moment, but it is not truly blinding, only startling. You peer
Floyd | around. Glittering light... and words! Or pictographs, or letters.
Floyd | Mathematical symbols, for all you know. The crystal walls are ringed
Floyd | with them, washed with them, dripping with obscure runes.
Floyd |
Floyd | This is certainly what you have been seeking... and you recognize the
Floyd | rune-forms of the language of Uabar! But that is not the only writing
Floyd | system represented here. Half of the symbols are unknown to you.
Floyd | Without further knowledge, it will take years of study to absorb the
Floyd | meaning of this chamber.
Floyd |
Floyd | Lacking that time, we should start the story over from the
Floyd | beginning.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "atalante"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] eggcrystalFloyd | startFloyd |
Floyd | > ATALANTEFloyd |
Floyd | You recognize the rune-forms of Uabar and AtalantÃ«! This is certainly
Floyd | what you have been seeking -- or an aspect of it, at least.
Floyd |
Floyd | You trace the writing across the walls. You are not fluent enough to
Floyd | understand it all; you will certainly return here, in the coming
Floyd | years, to absorb it all. But you grasp enough to follow the arguments,
Floyd | around and around...
Floyd |
Floyd | ...around and down to a niche, cunningly concealed in the chamber's
Floyd | floor. A glittering green glass egg rests within.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "that's a little misleading"

maga says (to Floyd), "egg"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] crystalFloyd | startFloyd ] eggFloyd |
Floyd | > EGGFloyd |
Floyd | You pick up the glass egg and turn it in your fingers. This, no doubt,
Floyd | is some artifact of the Lost; you have the rest of your life to
Floyd | discover its purpose.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is no more to be learned here. Let us start the story
Floyd | anew.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black
Floyd | crystal and a curious glass egg.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline asks, "The... the ship?"

maga says, "man, these will look awesome on the little shelf in front of the monitor on our computer desk"

maga says, "the ship seems to be what's left, but I'm not sure what we do there"

Jacqueline says (to maga), "haha"

Jacqueline says, "Yeah"

DavidW says, "There's two places besides the ship to consider."

maga says, "well, the murky pool o'death"

Jacqueline says, "hm, yeah"

DavidW says, "That's one of them."

Jacqueline says, "(I am here, and reading, but washing my face, so my hands will be too wet to type for a few.)"

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] pitFloyd | eggFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been
Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of
Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "side"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] inscriptionwaterFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > SIDEFloyd |
Floyd | You follow a descending passage, with the sound of water echoing
Floyd | somewhere ahead. You see nothing, but surely--
Floyd |
Floyd | Ah, here: you round a final turn, and see a dark pool ahead. It lies
Floyd | at the foot of a carved stone wall. Water trickles down the wall's
Floyd | face, feeding the pool from some unknown source above.
Floyd |
Floyd | The descending stream chuckles happily to itself; but the pool is
Floyd | oddly still, and opaque. But no -- your headlamp picks out a faint
Floyd | gleam, somewhere below the surface. Gold? Or the eye of some
Floyd | cave-fish, if they have eyes?
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the inscriptions, or reach into the
Floyd | water?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "inscriptions"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] inscriptionwaterFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > INSCRIPTIONSFloyd |
Floyd | The inscriptions tell, in awkward but decipherable Latin, of a
Floyd | war-party of titans who were flung from the heavens during the gods'
Floyd | war against Cronos. These titans sailed around the edge of the world
Floyd | seven times seeking the gates of Cronos's kingdom, but they could not
Floyd | be found, for all of that ur-kingdom had been sunk into the
Floyd | underworld. The titans dug... but beyond this, the text is unreadable,
Floyd | obliterated by the flowing water.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black
Floyd | crystal and a curious glass egg.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline asks, "Did we figure out the third location to which DW was alluding?"

maga says, "no"

Jacqueline thinks.

Jacqueline asks, "We've done all the stuff with the monk, right?"

Jacqueline asks, "And with our childhood climbing buddies?"

DavidW says, "I think you have, yes."

DavidW says, "well, try the ship anyway."

Jacqueline says, "I am wondering if having the crystal or egg in hand when we deal with the ship will make a difference, yes."

maga says (to Floyd), "d"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] canyonclimbingFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from
Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have
Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed.
Floyd |
Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening
Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the
Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "canyon"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] leftrightFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] opencarvingsFloyd | eggFloyd | >Floyd | > CANYONFloyd |
Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind.
Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow,
Floyd | steady descent.
Floyd |
Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly
Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar.
Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the
Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door,
Floyd | or continue to the left or right?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "open"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] crystalFloyd | startFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > OPENFloyd |
Floyd | The door opens easily, or as easily as a ton of marble on limestone
Floyd | hinges could move. The chamber beyond is mostly empty, but with clear
Floyd | signs of human habitation. It appears to have been some sort of living
Floyd | space; a sleeping nook, a few carved niches for storage. One blackened
Floyd | recess is certainly a fireplace, with -- yes -- a connection to a
Floyd | natural chimney in the rear.
Floyd |
Floyd | Of personal possessions, only a few splinters of wood and flakes of
Floyd | stone remain. Nonetheless, you eagerly anticipate the dating and
Floyd | paleological analysis that this trove will offer.
Floyd |
Floyd | Shall we leave that for the future, and start the story anew?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "oops, wrong way"

maga says, "but that fireplace still tickles my wotsits"

DavidW says, "try the egg here anyway"

maga says (to Floyd), "egg"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] crystalFloyd | startFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > EGGFloyd |
Floyd | You roll the glass egg in your hand, and then fling it down on the
Floyd | stone floor. It smashes satisfyingly into a heap of green glass
Floyd | splinters.
Floyd |
Floyd | The splinters continue to roil and shift, however. The heap begins to
Floyd | stretch into a sort of glass tendril, which quests around feebly.
Floyd | Whatever it is seeking, it does not find; the tendril soon goes limp
Floyd | and slumps back into bits of glass.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to DW), "just slightly less hinting would be better, I think"

Jacqueline asks, "Well - wait. So we had this egg at the pool, and it did nothing, right?"

maga says, "mrm"

maga says, "but it seems to have got us nothing here, other than being weirded out"

maga says, "it needs something to go with it"

maga says, "well, hm, we threw the egg into the pool"

Jacqueline asks, "Did we?"

maga says, "yeah, it didn't accomplish anything"

maga says, "so maybe we need it to tentacle-bang the flying saucer"

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black
Floyd | crystal and a curious glass egg.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Golly"

maga says (to Floyd), "d"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] canyonclimbingFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from
Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have
Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed.
Floyd |
Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening
Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the
Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "canyon"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] leftrightFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] opencarvingsFloyd | eggFloyd | >Floyd | > CANYONFloyd |
Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind.
Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow,
Floyd | steady descent.
Floyd |
Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly
Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar.
Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the
Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door,
Floyd | or continue to the left or right?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "right"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] turnrunFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > RIGHTFloyd |
Floyd | The narrow passage descends slightly as it runs, but it slowly widens
Floyd | as well.
Floyd |
Floyd | You are lost in thought, making your way forward, when an eerie hiss
Floyd | startles you nearly from your feet. You look back, but the canyon
Floyd | behind you is thick with shadow. There -- an oblong shape moves,
Floyd | somewhere beyond the range of your helmet lamp. It hisses again. It
Floyd | glides towards you.
Floyd |
Floyd | You turn, pull the flare from your belt, and twist the cap. It bursts
Floyd | to life, etching the passage with blue-white light.
Floyd |
Floyd | The shape shrieks and falls backwards. You have no desire to wait and
Floyd | see if it recovers; you drop the flare and run.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "run"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] touchcrystalFloyd | startFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > RUNFloyd |
Floyd | The flare soon winks out behind you. Only the dim glow of your helmet
Floyd | precedes you down the passage. The shape -- whatever it was -- does
Floyd | not reappear behind you. Fled, stunned, or set on fire; you don't
Floyd | care, as long as it stays away.
Floyd |
Floyd | The tunnel runs long, and you fall back into your meditative stroll.
Floyd | And then you are startled out of it, as your lamplight is thrown back
Floyd | by a polished curve of metal.
Floyd |
Floyd | You move forward, picking the shape out of cavernous darkness. It is
Floyd | wide, lenticular -- ten feet high, perhaps fifty across -- in fact, it
Floyd | is the archetypical flying saucer. Only it could never have flown, not
Floyd | down here, in a natural space barely larger than the saucer's hull.
Floyd |
Floyd | (But is it the saucer that landed here, or the archetype...?)
Floyd |
Floyd | You can see the outline of a hatch, or portal, in the broad metal
Floyd | underbelly. It is a thin groove, however -- barely visible. The only
Floyd | possible means of access is a shape etched in the center of the
Floyd | portal: the outline of a human hand.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you touch the panel?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "egg"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] touchcrystalFloyd | startFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > EGGFloyd |
Floyd | You roll the glass egg in your hand, and then fling it down on the
Floyd | stone floor. It smashes satisfyingly into a heap of green glass
Floyd | splinters.
Floyd |
Floyd | The splinters continue to roil and shift, however. The heap begins to
Floyd | stretch into a sort of glass tendril, which quests around feebly.
Floyd | Whatever it is seeking, it does not find; the tendril soon goes limp
Floyd | and slumps back into bits of glass.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] touchcrystalFloyd | startFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > TOUCHFloyd |
Floyd | You press your hand against the outline. The metal is cave-cool -- and
Floyd | then electric-hot, for just a moment. You snatch your hand back, but
Floyd | you are unharmed.
Floyd |
Floyd | From somewhere within the saucer, a voice echoes, in no language you
Floyd | have ever heard. There is a pause; the question is repeated.
Floyd |
Floyd | You say your name, for lack of any better idea, but it provokes no
Floyd | further response. Unless you have some other notion, we will have to
Floyd | start the story over.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] touchcrystalFloyd | startFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > LFloyd |
Floyd | The flare soon winks out behind you. Only the dim glow of your helmet
Floyd | precedes you down the passage. The shape -- whatever it was -- does
Floyd | not reappear behind you. Fled, stunned, or set on fire; you don't
Floyd | care, as long as it stays away.
Floyd |
Floyd | The tunnel runs long, and you fall back into your meditative stroll.
Floyd | And then you are startled out of it, as your lamplight is thrown back
Floyd | by a polished curve of metal.
Floyd |
Floyd | You move forward, picking the shape out of cavernous darkness. It is
Floyd | wide, lenticular -- ten feet high, perhaps fifty across -- in fact, it
Floyd | is the archetypical flying saucer. Only it could never have flown, not
Floyd | down here, in a natural space barely larger than the saucer's hull.
Floyd |
Floyd | (But is it the saucer that landed here, or the archetype...?)
Floyd |
Floyd | You can see the outline of a hatch, or portal, in the broad metal
Floyd | underbelly. It is a thin groove, however -- barely visible. The only
Floyd | possible means of access is a shape etched in the center of the
Floyd | portal: the outline of a human hand.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you touch the panel?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline asks, "Didn't we, in one life, only learn most of the stuff, not all of it? Should we do that again?"

Jacqueline says, "Hm, yeah, probably not. This was the bit I was thinking of, though:"

Jacqueline | The tablets seem to show ritual poses. If you are understanding them correctly, they indicate different castes of a society -- priest, merchanter, explorer, speaker-to-crowds -- and each caste has its set of postures and hand signs, from low rank to high. You mull the diagrams, and commit a few to memory.

maga says, "mm, yeah, I think that's done"

Jacqueline says, "Yeah."

DavidW says, "Those tablets were at the bottom of the umbrella-reached pit."

Jacqueline says, "I am pretty sure I could think better if I had another one of these coffee chocolate chip cookies, but sadly I only had one."

Jacqueline says, "And, like things in this game, the cookie was a one-use object."

maga says, "alas"

DavidW) CookieMonster asks, "No more cookie?"

maga says (to Floyd), "l"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] touchcrystalFloyd | startFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > LFloyd |
Floyd | The flare soon winks out behind you. Only the dim glow of your helmet
Floyd | precedes you down the passage. The shape -- whatever it was -- does
Floyd | not reappear behind you. Fled, stunned, or set on fire; you don't
Floyd | care, as long as it stays away.
Floyd |
Floyd | The tunnel runs long, and you fall back into your meditative stroll.
Floyd | And then you are startled out of it, as your lamplight is thrown back
Floyd | by a polished curve of metal.
Floyd |
Floyd | You move forward, picking the shape out of cavernous darkness. It is
Floyd | wide, lenticular -- ten feet high, perhaps fifty across -- in fact, it
Floyd | is the archetypical flying saucer. Only it could never have flown, not
Floyd | down here, in a natural space barely larger than the saucer's hull.
Floyd |
Floyd | (But is it the saucer that landed here, or the archetype...?)
Floyd |
Floyd | You can see the outline of a hatch, or portal, in the broad metal
Floyd | underbelly. It is a thin groove, however -- barely visible. The only
Floyd | possible means of access is a shape etched in the center of the
Floyd | portal: the outline of a human hand.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you touch the panel?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black
Floyd | crystal and a curious glass egg.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says, "yay LOOK still working."

maga says, "I'm sort of regretting not mapping at this point"

Jacqueline says, "DW has a map."

Jacqueline says, "But possibly it is spoilery."

DavidW says, "Unfortunately, my map is handdrawn and spoilery, yes."

Jacqueline says, "But if maga can't recall something, you could direct him to it."

Jacqueline says, "So there is that."

Jacqueline asks (of maga), "Why are you lamenting the lack of a map, specifically?"

maga says, "because I can't remember what's in certain places"

Jacqueline says, "Wouldn't take that long to map, really."

DavidW says, "I suppose I could say which half of the geograph, upwards or downwards, is the 3rd location."

maga says, "(like, what's beyond the spooky eye things?)"

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] pitFloyd | eggFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been
Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of
Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "ahead"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] forestcrystalFloyd | startFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > AHEADFloyd |
Floyd | The light brightens as you approach... though only in contrast to the
Floyd | stone-darkness do you call it bright.
Floyd |
Floyd | Eventually you make out veins of crystal overhead, which shed the
Floyd | slow-flaring orange glow. No such phosphorescent mineral is natural to
Floyd | the Earth's geology, you are sure; is this at last the sign you have
Floyd | sought?
Floyd |
Floyd | The crystal veins join and knot as the ceiling rises, until you walk
Floyd | in a wide cavern as well-lit as your own study. But your study
Floyd | contains nothing like the shadows that rise ahead: stalagmites cloaked
Floyd | in shifting darkness... no, trees, growing underground in the
Floyd | orange light. Surely only the arts of the Lost Peoples could nurture
Floyd | such a thing, here beneath the earth.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you advance into the forest?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "forest"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] runstandFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > FORESTFloyd |
Floyd | You move between the trees, and the orange light -- thin-spread as it
Floyd | was -- is quickly blotted out by overhanging branches. Only faint
Floyd | yellow gleams penetrate the foliage.
Floyd |
Floyd | It takes some time, in this rediscovered gloom, to realize that the
Floyd | glints among the foliage are paired. Eyes, in amber reflectance. You
Floyd | glance around nervously, and the eyes blink, in unison, all around
Floyd | you.
Floyd |
Floyd | You crack the tube, and smoke gushes everywhere -- rolling between the
Floyd | trees, drifting into the foliage, and obscuring those yellow-watching
Floyd | pairs of eyes. Now! You dodge forward, hunching down into the smoke,
Floyd | and run for your life.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "run"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] crystalFloyd | startFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > RUNFloyd |
Floyd | The smoke brightens, and thins, and you realize you have broken out
Floyd | into an open glade. The orange light of the cavern roof slants down;
Floyd | the watchers appears to have gone.
Floyd |
Floyd | In the center of the glade stands an empty pedestal. Has someone been
Floyd | here before you? How frustrating!
Floyd |
Floyd | There is no more to be learned here. Let us start the story
Floyd | anew.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "(not much, as it turns out)"

Jacqueline says, "That's where we got the crystal."

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black
Floyd | crystal and a curious glass egg.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "And I'm guessing the sink hole was just there to be pretty and explain the rope, but that it also is a dead end."

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] canyonclimbingFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] eggFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from
Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have
Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed.
Floyd |
Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening
Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the
Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW asks, "Do you want the rest of the directions there?"

maga says, "yeah, please"

DavidW says, "canyon. left."

maga says (to Floyd), "canyon"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] leftrightFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] opencarvingsFloyd | eggFloyd | >Floyd | > CANYONFloyd |
Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind.
Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow,
Floyd | steady descent.
Floyd |
Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly
Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar.
Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the
Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door,
Floyd | or continue to the left or right?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] climbcrystalFloyd | startFloyd |
Floyd | > EGGFloyd |
Floyd | You roll the glass egg in your hand, and then fling it down on the
Floyd | stone floor. It smashes satisfyingly into a heap of green glass
Floyd | splinters.
Floyd |
Floyd | The splinters continue to roil and shift, however. They seem to be
Floyd | stretching upwards; no, they are stretching upwards, towards
Floyd | the light far above. Soon the heap of glass has grown into a vine-like
Floyd | sprout -- two feet high, four feet high, higher than you can reach.
Floyd | Tendrils reach out and touch the sinkhole wall; and then the thing
Floyd | really gets going.
Floyd |
Floyd | When the crackling growth ceases, the vine runs all the way to the top
Floyd | of the sinkhole. Will you climb it?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "climb"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] coincrystalFloyd | startFloyd | >Floyd | > CLIMBFloyd |
Floyd | You touch the glass vine carefully. It is rough, but not glass-sharp,
Floyd | and even slightly flexible -- like a real vine, though you can see
Floyd | light glinting through it.
Floyd |
Floyd | You have plenty of time to admire the thing as you haul yourself up
Floyd | the sinkhole, of course. The climb is tiring, but quite easy.
Floyd |
Floyd | When you reach the top, and pull your head above the lip, you are
Floyd | briefly disappointed: this is not the surface. You are at the bottom
Floyd | of a much larger pit, open to the sunlight and thick with foliage, but
Floyd | still well below ground level.
Floyd |
Floyd | Then you look around, and disappointment is driven from your mind. You
Floyd | are surrounded by mounds of gold! Or, if not mounds, at least thick
Floyd | drifts. Shining gold coins lie everywhere -- half-buried in the mulch,
Floyd | overgrown by grass and saplings.
Floyd |
Floyd | Somewhere above, perhaps centuries ago, some tribe or nation or
Floyd | civilization must have used this crater for ritual sacrifice: not of
Floyd | blood, but of treasure. Year after year, coins dropped into the
Floyd | depths... Or is that your own cultural projection? It could have been
Floyd | sport, or challenge, or the equivalent of a wishing well.
Floyd |
Floyd | One day you will know -- or have a more informed guess, at least. In
Floyd | the meantime, you may take one coin as a souvenir, or
Floyd | start the story from the beginning.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Jacqueline says, "Not a dead end after all."

Jacqueline says, "Green egg, green room filled with green light. Should have thought of that sooner."

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] coinFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black
Floyd | crystal and an old gold coin.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "u"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] passageclimbingFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] coinFloyd | >Floyd | > UFloyd |
Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said MarcoFloyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is
Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs.
Floyd |
Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening
Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the
Floyd | passage, or continue climbing?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "passage"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] aheadsideFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] pitFloyd | coinFloyd | >Floyd | > PASSAGEFloyd |
Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall
Floyd | enough for you to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall
Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites.
Floyd |
Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been
Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of
Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a
Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also
Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "side"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] inscriptionwaterFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] coinFloyd | >Floyd | > SIDEFloyd |
Floyd | You follow a descending passage, with the sound of water echoing
Floyd | somewhere ahead. You see nothing, but surely--
Floyd |
Floyd | Ah, here: you round a final turn, and see a dark pool ahead. It lies
Floyd | at the foot of a carved stone wall. Water trickles down the wall's
Floyd | face, feeding the pool from some unknown source above.
Floyd |
Floyd | The descending stream chuckles happily to itself; but the pool is
Floyd | oddly still, and opaque. But no -- your headlamp picks out a faint
Floyd | gleam, somewhere below the surface. Gold? Or the eye of some
Floyd | cave-fish, if they have eyes?
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the inscriptions, or reach into the
Floyd | water?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "coin"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] inscriptionwaterFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] wordFloyd | >Floyd | > COINFloyd |
Floyd | You pull out the old gold coin with its indecipherable markings. In
Floyd | for a penny, in for a priceless artifact of the Lost, you think, and
Floyd | toss the coin into the pool.
Floyd |
Floyd | The gold sinks, becoming only another glint in the depths. Then the
Floyd | water stirs. A fish-tail slaps the surface, the fin of some long
Floyd | golden carp-like creature. Then...
Floyd |
Floyd | ...the fish does not speak. Fish can't talk. You definitely
Floyd | don't hear anything. But there is the sense of a word being
Floyd | pronounced, with precision and vast intent. When it is
Floyd | finished -- indeed, while it is occurring -- it is etched into your
Floyd | memory.
Floyd |
Floyd | The fish flips once again, and disappears into the murk. That will be
Floyd | all from this pool, you decide. Shall we start the story over?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "okay, saucer time"

Jacqueline says, "Yep"

maga says (to Floyd), "start"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] upwardsdownwardsFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] wordFloyd | >Floyd | > STARTFloyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | (...You begin again.)Floyd |
Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan)Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim
Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness
Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them.
Floyd |
Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you
Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are
Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of
Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence,
Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the
Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of AtalantÃ« explore here
Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow?
Floyd |
Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful
Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or
Floyd | downwards?
Floyd |
Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black
Floyd | crystal. You have memorized an untranslateable word.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "d"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] canyonclimbingFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] wordFloyd | >Floyd | > DFloyd |
Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from
Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have
Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed.
Floyd |
Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening
Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the
Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "canyon"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] leftrightFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] opencarvingsFloyd | wordFloyd | >Floyd | > CANYONFloyd |
Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind.
Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow,
Floyd | steady descent.
Floyd |
Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly
Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar.
Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the
Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door,
Floyd | or continue to the left or right?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "right"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] turnrunFloyd | crystalstartFloyd ] wordFloyd | >Floyd | > RIGHTFloyd |
Floyd | The narrow passage descends slightly as it runs, but it slowly widens
Floyd | as well.
Floyd |
Floyd | You are lost in thought, making your way forward, when an eerie hiss
Floyd | startles you nearly from your feet. You look back, but the canyon
Floyd | behind you is thick with shadow. There -- an oblong shape moves,
Floyd | somewhere beyond the range of your helmet lamp. It hisses again. It
Floyd | glides towards you.
Floyd |
Floyd | You turn, pull the flare from your belt, and twist the cap. It bursts
Floyd | to life, etching the passage with blue-white light.
Floyd |
Floyd | The shape shrieks and falls backwards. You have no desire to wait and
Floyd | see if it recovers; you drop the flare and run.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "run"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] touchcrystalFloyd | startFloyd ] wordFloyd | >Floyd | > RUNFloyd |
Floyd | The flare soon winks out behind you. Only the dim glow of your helmet
Floyd | precedes you down the passage. The shape -- whatever it was -- does
Floyd | not reappear behind you. Fled, stunned, or set on fire; you don't
Floyd | care, as long as it stays away.
Floyd |
Floyd | The tunnel runs long, and you fall back into your meditative stroll.
Floyd | And then you are startled out of it, as your lamplight is thrown back
Floyd | by a polished curve of metal.
Floyd |
Floyd | You move forward, picking the shape out of cavernous darkness. It is
Floyd | wide, lenticular -- ten feet high, perhaps fifty across -- in fact, it
Floyd | is the archetypical flying saucer. Only it could never have flown, not
Floyd | down here, in a natural space barely larger than the saucer's hull.
Floyd |
Floyd | (But is it the saucer that landed here, or the archetype...?)
Floyd |
Floyd | You can see the outline of a hatch, or portal, in the broad metal
Floyd | underbelly. It is a thin groove, however -- barely visible. The only
Floyd | possible means of access is a shape etched in the center of the
Floyd | portal: the outline of a human hand.
Floyd |
Floyd | Will you touch the panel?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "touch"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] touchcrystalFloyd | startFloyd ] wordFloyd | >Floyd | > TOUCHFloyd |
Floyd | You press your hand against the outline. The metal is cave-cool -- and
Floyd | then electric-hot, for just a moment. You snatch your hand back, but
Floyd | you are unharmed.
Floyd |
Floyd | From somewhere within the saucer, a voice echoes, in no language you
Floyd | have ever heard. There is a pause; the question is repeated.
Floyd |
Floyd | You say your name, for lack of any better idea, but it provokes no
Floyd | further response. Unless you have some other notion, we will have to
Floyd | start the story over.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "word"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] crystalFloyd | startFloyd |
Floyd | > WORDFloyd |
Floyd | You place your hand against the outline, and pronounce the Word that
Floyd | you learned so long ago.
Floyd |
Floyd | The hatch does not open, exactly. But when you look again, it is an
Floyd | open space, and a curved ramp runs down from the space to the stone at
Floyd | your feet. You take it as an invitation.
Floyd |
Floyd | The interior of the saucer is a glass cocoon. It is difficult to focus
Floyd | on any part of the structure; some aspects seem to be revolving around
Floyd | you, although you cannot be sure. What is clear is the pedestal in the
Floyd | center. It supports a faceted matrix of black crystal, with a single
Floyd | polyhedral gap in its center.
Floyd |
Floyd | Is this the end of your story, or will you start again?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "crystal"

Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think
Floyd ] quitFloyd | restartFloyd ] undoFloyd |
Floyd | > CRYSTALFloyd |
Floyd | You slide the black crystal into the matrix. The pedestal retracts
Floyd | into the floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | You notice then -- although you're not sure how long it's been -- that
Floyd | the saucer's hatch is closed. The cocoon surrounds you entirely.
Floyd |
Floyd | It is not my intent (said Marco Polo to Kublai Khan) to
Floyd | complete this story. No, do not turn such a glance upon me! I have
Floyd | given you the necessities; you can continue the tale on your own.
Floyd | Whether the saucer is a craft of travel between worlds, or a library
Floyd | of learning, or some other unfathomable instrument -- I cannot presume
Floyd | to guess. I did not undertake this journey, these discoveries! You
Floyd | did, o Khan. Always, it was you.
Floyd |
Floyd | The lost cities, Uabar, AtalantÃ« -- some would number Xanadu among
Floyd | them, but do we not sit here, in your stately garden? This is your
Floyd | cocoon, Great Khan, your nest, your dome. I leave you now, to make of
Floyd | it what you will.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | *** The story is over ***
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to restart the game from the very beginning,
Floyd | quit the game, or undo the last command?
Floyd | >

DavidW cheers.

Jacqueline says, "woo"

Jacqueline says, "That was fun."

Jacqueline says, "Thank you, Uncle Zarf."

zarf says, "you're welcome"

maga says, "yeah, nice work"

zarf says, "I left the command line in specifically for CF"

Zach says, "Hooray!"

Jacqueline says, "You da bomb."

DavidW says (to zarf), "Thank you!"

Zach says, "I nominate the game for "Best Use of Marco Polo""

zarf says, "that bit was almost an accident"

Jacqueline smiles.

zarf says, "I had considered writing an Invisible Cities / Codex Seraphinianus crossover IF, but wound up assigned XKCD. The bits of IC that I had thought about just stuck around."